Personally, after I have read TSH a million times, and I DON'T like any of them.
Richard is pretentious liar, who may be making up the entire story, who knows.
Henry.....I am not even gonna explain his faults. I still love him tho (I don't like him, it's a love/hate relationship).
Francis, used to be my favourite because I imagined him looking like Timothée Chalamet but now that I think, he wasn't much great either (although I still consider him more likeable than others, but that might be my delusion or want to find one good character).
Camilla is a mystery. I don't know anything about her and I don't trust Richard and how he made her the saint of the group. I know she is a fan favourite, I just don't get her, we see so little of her personality! What is this girlie thinking? (she could've made a great twist villain)
Charles. I know he was used as the "scapegoat" in the book but if he was the way he acted in the last chapters. I hate him.
Bunny, somehow the most normal one, makes my skin crawl with his words. I am conflicted about his murder.
What if all of them are red flags? (Kinda are)
Ps: I didn't put "none of them" because I knew it would get the most votes.
I want to read a fanfiction about Henry and Richard being an AU version of Sherlock and Watson.
The scene where Richard tells Henry about the moon landing and Sherlock telling Watson he doesn't know the earth revolves around the sun are just......
💫perfection💫
Imagine the shenanigans they will get into. Henry being the smartass who doesn't know how the metro works (or the modern world to an extent) and Richard being his babysitter/oblivious partner (who doesn't know what the fuck is happening) and they are roommates! (Omg, they were roommates)
They even have the same unresolved homoerotic tension like Sherlock and Watson.
Ps: Richard used to study Medicine in the past and Watson is a Doctor....boom
I just realised how much I disliked Bunny (on my first read) because of his personality and not any of the others who ended up killing him.
We all collectively agreed
"I can excuse murder, but I draw the line at homophobia"
"You can excuse murder?"
Can we talk about how Richard thinks of Judy Poovey as a weirdo, when she is less chaotic and insane than all of the Greek gang members.
Judy Poovey didn't do rituals in the forest that involved a bacchanal, searching for Dionysus.
Judy Poovey didn't push her best friend off a cliff.
Judy Poovey didn't cover up two murders for aesthetically pleasing reasons.
She is the most sane person out of all of them.
On the other hand, everyone that is not in the Greek class, thinks of them as the weirdos, which just shows how something that is cool and sane for one person can't be for another.
The difference between my feelings towards "If We Were Villains" and "The Secret History" is completely opposite
When I read "If We Were Villains" I cry at how tragic the story is and when I read "The Secret History" I scream:
WHAT THE FUCK RICHARD, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY REDISTRIBUTION OF MATTER, HENRY?
WHAT IS CHARLES DOING SLEEPING IN A FUCKING SNAIL?
COCAINE IN PARKING LOT OF BURGER KING? EXCUSE ME WHAT?
The tragedy of TSH is the characters, I find IWWV more compelling in that department since the characters are more likeable. But the story and writing of TSH is so good! Both have their different charms and I appreciate both of them.
Ps: I think Oscar Wilde would have enjoyed both immensely if he could have read them.
Every scene between James and Oliver is either romantic or angsty (sometimes both). It makes me feel butterflies and wanting to rip my eyes out at the same time.
Idc what happened in the end, James and Oliver lived happily ever after in their cottagecore home with their books and cats.
(I am delusional for them)
Some happy TSH Headcanons:
Henry and Bunny bonded because they are both flat-earthers (sometimes they like to talk about it in front of Francis just to annoy him)
Camilla likes to grow flowers and Henry helps her in gardening.
Bunny likes to throw surprise birthday parties for his friends (they end up paying the bill).
Charles and Francis do role-play when they are bored.
Richard likes reading books a lot and since he isn't able to afford many, Henry gives him all his old copies.
Francis goes to Richard whenever he is sick ("I think I have Cholera" "You don't have Cholera, Francis")
Camilla and Francis bake together, they like gossiping about boys.
Charles calls Richard whenever he is drunk since no one else picks his phone (they know better).
Francis brought a house in Paris, he visits art galleries and boutiques.
Francis and Richard remain good friends despite their distances.
Camilla is secretly Julian's favourite student.
Bunny has a key to Henry's house because he sleeps there when Marion is mad at him.
Charles loves Champagne icecream, Camilla loves apricots (idk why but she looks like an apricot girlie)
Henry bought a Gucci bag for Francis's birthday ("Damnit Henry" "Why, I think it's rather grand!!!" )
Charles and Camilla have similar tastes in fashion, they buy their clothes together.
Henry keeps a detailed account of his every interaction with Julian.
Richard often forgets to eat, so Camilla always keeps something for him.
Henry respects Francis and considers him to be smarter than him at times.
First time reading The Secret History: A tragedy
Re-reading The Secret History: A comedy
I was laughing so hard when Bunny asked Henry what they all were doing up there, and FREAKING Henry Winter just says "Why, looking for new ferns"
He didn't have to say anything to Bunny. But Henry had to be dramatic before pushing his "best friend" to his death didn't he?
Henry Winter had a chance to be poetic and he was.
Richard: hehe....do you think Charles and Camilla are fucking eachother?
Francis: yes
Richard: *spits drink out* I was just kidding
Francis: we are all fucking eachother, when will you realise that?
(ps: I was clutching my imaginary pearls when that revelation happened)
Re-read TSH.....AGAIN
Here are some weird/wtf/sad moments and details I had forgotten:
•Henry wrote a diary entry about murdering a guy 🤨.
•then forgets that Bunny is capable enough to translate the diary entries and find out about the murder.
•Richard has a random thought about r-wording Camilla out of nowhere (*What the fuck Richard vine plays in the background*) 😳.
•The first time Richard sees the twins he thinks they are a couple..........hmm (I was sus about that from the start) 😶.
•Richard had two pages of internal monologue about Henry being gay.
•There was broken stuff in the twins dorm, which was due to Charles trashing the house whenever he is mad at Camilla (FUCK CHARLES).
•Franics was making passes at Richard multiple times.
•Francis and Camilla kissed for some reason, twice.
•Richard only studied greek before to have a language class that's in the afternoon so he could sleep late in the morning (sometimes I feel like he survives only on pure instinct).
•Richard was constantly finassing his employer.
•Henry and Charles were ready to throw hands at Judy (do NOT touch the queen you freaks).
•Henry planned multiple murder options for Bunny (💫dumb ways to die💫).
•Richard had no problem being an accomplice in murder for people he barely knows.
•Bunny drops multiple hints about the murder the others did early on.
•Nobody tried to save Camilla way before if they knew Charles's controlling nature (Henry taking her away was the best thing he ever did).
•Camilla and Henry had secret telephone codes.
•Francis was forced to have a lavender marriage ðŸ˜.
•all of this shit went down during one academic year.
•Camilla's whole purpose was to give storylines to Henry, Charles and Richard. She deserved so much better than that. And I don't want her to ever stay around any of the guys of the group (except for Francis).
•Julian was blissfully aware of the obsessive nature of his students, and not only encouraged it but directly lit the fire that caused them to become who they are. (He tried to pull a John Keating from DPS, but he could NEVER be the Dark Academia teacher icon)
BONUS:
Tally of the members of the greek gang who have kissed eachother (NOT COUNTING THE BACCHANAL, where they all fucked.....Idk what happens in a bacchanal, I am too scared to research)
Camilla: 4 (Henry, Francis, Charles, Richard)
Francis: 3 (Charles, Camilla, Richard)
Richard: 2 (Francis, Camilla)
Charles: 2 (Francis, Camilla)
Henry: 1 (Camilla)
Bunny: 0 (RIP, I guess 😅)
Richard: Francis has such pretty hands, he is like a dainty teenage girl, he is so kissable.
Richard: Henry looks cool af, his eyebrows, his posture, his glasses....ah
Richard: Charles is the best looking one though, he is like an angel on earth, 10/10.
Richard: what are you talking about, I am completely straight......I like Camilla 🙄
Henry: This year, I lost my dear friend Bunny Concoran.
Bunny: stop telling everyone I am dead
Henry: you just wait :)
Henry: I have a plan!
Richard: you always have a plan, bless you.
Francis: does this plan involve murder in any way?
Henry:......I no longer have a plan.
How Gay do you want your books to be?
Dark academia authors: Yes.
How I wish it had gone:
Richard: you know, smoking is bad for you....
Francis: shut the fuck up, bitch. I KNOW SMOKING IS BAD FOR HEALTH. Thanks to you keep reminding me that. Henry fucking killed Bunny and all you care about is if I have lung cancer, you douchebag????
Camilla: Francis, it's okay...
Richard: I was just saying....
Francis: You have no problem with the amount of alcohol we consume on daily? We are all alcoholics, take drugs and murder people!
Charles: shhh...
Henry:........can anyone stop him please, I am getting a headache.
Francis: I just have a lot of feelings.
Oliver: there's someone I like, since years and I finally want to confess....
James: I love you too
Oliver: what?
James: you said you were confessing
Oliver: I was talking about confessing to Meredith
James: oh...okay *stares at Meredith* I hate you sooooo much, bitch.
Henry: let's kill Bunny.
Francis: sounds good
Charles: no problemo
Camilla: I don't care if you do
Richard:....okay? Yay, killing bunny!!!
Me: YOU ARE GONNA COVER UP A MURDER BY ANOTHER MURDER????? I KNOW WE HATE HIM,BUT MURDER, HENRY SERIOUSLY! AND RICHARD WHY ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO GET INVOLVED???? DIDN'T YOU COME HERE FOR THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE, IS MURDER A COLLEGE EXPERIENCE????
Also, me: wait I already knew Bunny was getting killed why I am so surprised.....I had forgotten it was coming?
Also, me: fuck Bunny, let's kill him!
Julian: I don't understand young people nowadays, all they ever do is drugs!!! Disgusting.
Richard: *after taking Coke, LSD, random pills, probably meth, and other drugs* I know right! Tell me about it!
I always found that scene hilarious where James comes in middle of the night to Oliver's house to stay for vacation and they decide to share a bed (not sus at all) and in the morning Oliver's sisters are making fun of him when they found the boys sleeping together by asking, "Who's your boyfriend Oliver?" and Oliver is pissed off and embarssed by that but James does not give a fuck about being called Oliver's boyfriend and just says "I'm James. Lovely to meet you both" as if actually addressing himself as Oliver's boyfriend.
James giving Oliver a "not so brotherly kiss": YES GO!!!!! I AM SO HAPPY! FINALLY! MY SHIP HAS SAILED!
Charles giving Camilla a "not so brotherly kiss": ........WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BOOK
You know you are invested in a book when you feel jealousy with the main character, when you have a breakdown when they do, when you get anxious when they are, when you feel the love for their love interest as much as they do, when you cry for them and smile with them and then the book ends and you feel an empty void as if life had stopped.
Bunny: so what do we have for lunch....
Henry:.....wine
Bunny: I meant something we can eat.
Charles: which drug do you like? I don't have much on me but we can buy some.
Bunny: that's not what a human should have for lunch
Franics: I do the coffee, cigarettes and Maraschino Cherries diet, you wanna try?
Bunny: what the....
Camilla: we could have had some lamb chops but we don't have it anymore.
Bunny: why?
Camilla: we had to sacrifice the lamb during a ritual and bathe in its blood
Bunny: you know what I would rather be dead by eating grilled cheese sandwich and milkshake than hang out with you weirdos anymore
-Jack Edwards (source: Youtube " I tried dark academia aesthetic for a week")
Basically how Bunny's death went:
Henry: knock knock!
Bunny: who's there?
Henry: push!
Bunny: push, who?
Henry: push you!
Francis, Camilla, Charles, Richard: *gasp* anyways----
Julian: so you killed two people?
Henry: you can justify anything, if you do it poetically enough
Francis *wishpers*: wrong fandom Henry.
Richard's unhinged energy is the most entertaining part for me beside the murders. Like the guy is an inspiration for chaotic people. He lies about his family life, pretends his rich father has business in oil (who irl has a petrol pump), lies to his part time employer to get money, goes on a 90s teen movie shopping spree, takes any free item from Judy, lies about going to a prep school, lives on a diet of wine and more wine, takes any pill anyone gives him, joins a cultish greek gang, lets Bunny die an aesthetically pleasing death and not to forget.....does cocaine in the parking lot of Burger King.
Reading IWWV was such a journey. While I did enjoy TSH, it never broke me like IWWV did. The book is shorter than TSH but has more impact than the prior. The style, the writing, the characters and the story is so vastly different yet same as TSH. The thing about it is, I can read TSH as many times as I want, get new theories and discover more details. But I couldn't read IWWV even ounce after the first read, because all I could feel was pain.
The reason I always thought there was something more to Camilla than what we read is because the book is from the perspective of Richard who was supposed to be in love with her.
I always got some unsettling energy from the twins, they were just too perfect at the start. By the end of the 2nd part it had changed when Charles showed his real colours. But Camilla throughout the story remained the only person to not have a flip of personality. Francis sheds off his "too cool for you" persona and becomes close with Richard. Henry....well Henry after killing Bunny stops functioning a little. Even Julian is no long the John Keating of the story but a normal person who as soon as found out his students killed two people, left them alone (what would you have done in that situation?)
I thought it was strange that Camilla never became anything more than a girl Richard liked, and later connected with Henry and Charles. I wished so much more for the character to be than that. And after the reveal of her and Henry's relationship (after Henry orchestrated Bunny's murder) I felt like Camilla has a dark side that Richard just ignored to portray her as the best of them. She seemed to be hiding something all the time.
I don't think she is a bad person, not at all. I think she has a more complex personality than being the goddess of a person Richard portrayed her to be. The amount of abuse she went through since childhood must have had some effect on her as a person. She didn't really deserved any of the guys. I wished in the end she would have just said "Stop!" And left all of them.
I would have liked to know more about Camilla, we don't get any insight to her at all, which made her not really my favourite character (especially during my first time reading when I was waiting for her to change a bit like everyone else)